Joe Huard of Manchester, NH, and Anne Malixi of Sydney, Australia – from virtual gamers to real life husband and wife. Courtesy Photo
MANCHESTER, NH – Joe loves to play video games. He has been playing all his life… and he is very good at it. In fact, long ago, he graduated from playing on a closed system on a television screen to playing on-line engaging other “gamers” from all over the world.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe….
Anne also loves to play video games. She has also been playing all her life… and she is very good at it. She also graduated from playing on a closed system on a television screen to playing on-line engaging other “gamers” from all over the world.
It was February, 2020. The COVID pandemic had affected people everywhere. The world was “locked down.” Offices emptied out so people could work from home. Some people worked different hours. Some people weren’t working at all. It was a strange time.
It was during this time that both Joe and Anne discovered each other, playing on opposite sides of the same on-line video game, on opposite sides of the globe. The game is called State of Survival. They started conversing through the game software and discovered they had a lot in common. Who would have thought that one could find love in a “zombie post-apocalyptic world full of horror.” In the game, “you must quickly escape the threat of infection and the shadow of death.” Thankfully, they both survived to converse through more “normal” means, like SnapChat. Even though Joe and Anne both worked, they could make time to talk online just about every day because of the time difference.
After so many chats, it was time to meet face-to-face. The two met in October 2022 when Anne flew to the U.S. Anne spent a week in Manchester, the two went to Florida for a week to meet Joe’s family, returned to Manchester for another week, and then Anne headed back to Australia. Things went well.
Then it was time for another meeting. This time they decided on meeting at a half-way point – Hawaii. They met there in May 2023. Amidst a hair-raising helicopter ride (Joe didn’t like flying with the doors off) a tour of Pearl Harbor, and viewing the USS Arizona Memorial, they talked about getting married. Anne liked the idea. But being the “traditional girl” that she is, she said he had to first meet her family.
Despite the albeit slim possibility that they would not get married, Anne began the paperwork process to come to the U.S. on a permanent basis. The process and the paperwork were daunting. Thinking they had everything required, Anne submitted her paperwork – only to be told that Immigration wanted more documentation! For example, it wasn’t enough for Joe’s parents to send a joint letter confirming they knew Anne and that she wanted to come to the US to get married. They needed one letter from his mother and a second letter from his father. By the time she gathered together all the “proper documents”, it was over 100 pages! (Did someone in Immigration really read all 100 pages?)
In November, 2023, Joe spent three weeks in Sydney meeting Anne’s family. They approved. With her family’s blessing, Joe and Anne made their wedding plans “official” when he proposed to her on the top of the Sydney Tower Eye, one of Sydney’s main tourist attractions. It is the highest point in the city from which one can “be the first to witness the sunrise and last to see the sunset.” It is Sydney’s version of the Seattle space needle.
Finally, the paperwork was settled – at least to the point where Anne could be legally married in the U.S. Anne made her final trip to the U.S. in July 2024. On Friday, August 30, 2024, Joesph Huard, 44, of Manchester, a commercial flooring contractor, married Anne Malixi, 34, of Sydney, Australia, a digital marketing administrator, in a civil ceremony at The Gardens at Uncanoonuc Mountain in Goffstown, NH.
Joe and Anne set up a Zoom connection with Anne’s cell phone so her parents and friends in Australia could “share” the ceremony with them. The ceremony started at 12:30 p.m. on a Friday, Mount Uncanoonuc time; it was 2:30 a.m., Saturday morning in Sydney. But the Manchester/Sydney “connection” was complete.
Congratulations you two! Have a happy life together!
Author Gary Ledoux is a former New Hampshire resident now living in Florida with his wife Rachel – parents of the groom.
